COLUMBIA, SC - The Savannah River Maritime Commission has approved a proposed settlement to end the litigation over the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project. All other involved parties must approve the settlement before it goes into effect.“This is truly a conditional permit," said Randy Lowell, attorney for SRMC.Lowell also said the commission retains the right to stop the project from moving forward if they do not believe the dissolved oxygen system will work.

The Georgia Ports Authority is holding a called meeting this afternoon and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is planning a conference call to address the issue.

In April of last year, the Corps approved the deepening of the Savannah River from 42 feet to 47 feet to accommodate the large container carriers that will call once the Panama Canal expansion is completed in 2014. The Corps stated that the project was “economically viable, environmentally sustainable and in the best interests of the United States.” But South Carolina, which shares both jurisdiction of the river and a port rivalry with Georgia, said its state permit for the project was improperly used, an assertion that was upheld in South Carolina Supreme Court in November. The court ordered the two sides into federal arbitration on the issue of deepening the channel. All parties to the dispute - including the Corps, the GPA, the Maritime Commission and the Southern Environmental Law Center, as well as the South Carolina DHEC, the Savannah Riverkeeper, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and the South Carolina Wildlife Federation - have participated in the mediation sessions, as well as the negotiations that followed each.